Starfleet Academy
by Florence of Arabia
Summary: Follows Pike and Spock through their time at the Academy before Kirk showed up. Features minor characters from The Original Series (Marlena Moreau, Gary Mitchell, etc.), characters from Enterprise, and original characters. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

Starfleet Academy

Chapter 1

The City by the Bay

"So Captain…or…can I call you Christopher?"

"You're new to this aren't you?" said Pike, in a tone that was blunt but not unkind. The Denobulan in the chair facing him fidgeted a little.

"Well yes…but don't worry I have a degree in Xenopsychology from…"

"The Phlox Institute. I know, you've adopted the human custom of displaying your degree on the wall. Congratulations, by the way. I know how prestigious that place is. You must be a bright young man."

"Thank you" Dr. Zefix couldn't help but smile a little at this before pressing on with some determination "But of course we're not here to talk about me"

"Sorry, it's a defense mechanism but I'm pretty sure you picked up on that." The doctor made a note on his PADD.

"Yes but…if you know what you are doing why do you continue to do it? Unless you are testing me which honestly I don't appreciate."

"I'm not that arrogant or that big of an asshole. I know most of what's wrong with me. If I may use an engineering metaphor, any moron can tell when a warp core is offline. It takes a genius to fix the thing."

"That is a good point but…Christopher…" He had to admit that calling Captain Pike by his first name felt inappropriate but if he kept focusing on rank he would never stop being intimidated by the man and that wouldn't serve either of them. "It lets you off the hook; thinking about things that way." Pike rearranged his arms so that he no longer rested them on the arms of the chair. Dr. Zephix felt a little relieved. He hadn't been in Starfleet long but one of the pieces of advice he had paid close attention to was something Dr. Boyce had told him about posture; "You know most humans cross their arms when they're being defensive? High-ranking officers, they try not to do this too much. They worry that their crew might pick up on it. You know they're uncomfortable when they sit the way they do when they're in the captain's chair. Rigid arms, straight back, leaning slightly forward. That means their bracing themselves."

"That's not untrue." Said the captain, shifting he weight yet again "But I didn't say it was impossible, I just meant it was hard."

"Fair point. We'll come back to that later. But what I really want to get to is how you feel about your new assignment"

"That's a nice way of asking me how I feel about being declared unfit for command and getting pushed into the jobs for the dumb pretty boys, fuck ups and relics."

"Don't you think that's an unfair judgment upon recruitment and teaching? Training cadets is no easy job"

"Sorry. I forgot some people actually want to do that and some have to for family reasons. Neither of these apply to me. I'm here on earth because my best friend told the brass that I was crazy" Zefix cleared his throat and double-checked Pike's medical file.

"I know you know there's a difference between "crazy" and "exhausted""

"Yeah and I also know the difference between "tired, needs to take a couple months leave" and "is in serious danger of breakdown, you can't trust this guy not to blow up his own ship, maybe a straightjacket is in line here…" Pike passed his hand over his face in an irritated gesture "I get it ok…I know I'm being hyperbolic here. But I'm sorry. You asked me how I felt and the answer is "shitty". I feel hurt and betrayed and weak and powerless. I'm humiliated and I'm angry. I feel like I let everyone down… I'm not the man they thought I was. I'm not the man I tried to be. So yeah, the short answer is I feel like shit. Right now I hate this assignment and would beat the tar out of it if that were physically possible. But you ask me how I feel next week and I'll be more reasonable and soon I'll be able to pretend I don't care then I'll have adjusted to it, because that's what people do. We done here?"

"Well that's…um… I suppose we are for now, I suppose…if you want us to be, but we will talk about all of this." Zefix knew he shouldn't be letting the man go like this but he felt he needed some time to come up with a rejoinder to the torrent of frustration that had just blindsided him.

"Thanks, I'll see you next Thursday but now I've got dinner with an old friend"

Pike opted to walk rather than take a cab. Now that he was out of a climate-controlled therapist's office and alone in the familiar city feeling real air on his face he begun to feel better. He knew the Denobulan was just doing his job and the sessions would get easier as he became resigned to babysitting cadets and hoping that eventually someone would be nice enough to give him another ship. It wasn't that he didn't believe in counseling, hell he was the first person to suggest to people that they seek help if they needed it. It just didn't work very well for him. Maybe he'd just gone over to the Phil Boyce Method for maintaining mental health, the main doctrine of which was that alcohol was a much better treatment option than medication. But of course if it hadn't been for Phil he'd still be in command of the Yorktown.

He took deep breaths and tried to concentrate on the city around him. During his lifetime more and more of the beautiful ancient buildings were disappearing in favor of modern constructions. It was a shame, to Pike a great deal of San Francisco's charm lay in the eclectic mix of the old and the new. An excellent example of this was the way ancient ethnic enclaves like Chinatown now coexisted with Non-Terran communities like the Orion district and Little Andoria. His destination was the former and he found it. As he walked down the familiar side street he pretended not to notice the knowing smirks he was getting from other human males heading in and out of the clubs which announced the presence of live green women in Standard, English and Orion. He went past them to a cluster of apartments and knocked on the door of one of them. It was opened by an unfamiliar Orion male.

"What do you want, pinkskin?"

"Is that Chris?" came a yell from an unseen woman at the top of the stairs

"Who's Chris?" asked the stranger glaring at him.

"That would be me. Illyiana's expecting me so if you'd get out of my way that would be much appreciated" The Orion must have picked up on the look of 'You don't want to mess with me tonight' Pike was sending his way because he stepped to the side and let the captain pass.

"Fine I'm leaving now!" he yelled "But you tell that psycho daughter of yours that no one treats my son like that. You hear me? Your lucky he's not pressing charges."

Pike climbed the short flight of stairs and walked into the kitchen where was greeted with a hug from the beautiful green woman he'd come to see.

"God Chris it's been forever. I've missed you! Did you always have this much grey in your hair or is that new?" Though Pike had intended just to give her a friendly hug then break apart but they were still holding each other. Old habits always died hard with him. She had a few grey hairs herself but in a way that made it clear that she died it back to her usual jet-black on a regular basis.

"Wow, you really know how to make a guy feel good about himself"

"Sorry baby, not my line. How's about I just make you feel good instead?" She replied in a tone that said she knew how cheesy her innuendo was but couldn't care less and before he knew it she'd pushed him down onto her kitchen table and had begun unbuttoning the front of her dress. Old habits apparently didn't even bother dying with them. Before she could finish disrobing he pulled her down on top of him and kissed her for the first time in years.

"I missed you too, Illiyana. I really did" She smirked at him as if to say "well duh" and they resumed kissing with greater intensity. Pike was just about to reach down and try and do something about the fact that his clothes were inconveniently on his body when a female voice interrupted them from the doorway.

"Oh sorry mom, I didn't know you'd have someone over…also can you guys try and stay as clothed as possible if you're going to be on the kitchen table, or at the very least clean it afterwards?" Pike desperately tried to stand up only to be pushed back down by Illiyana

"I can do whatever I like young lady this is my house and if you don't like what I do you don't have to live here. Honestly you sound so Terran sometimes" Pike managed to get free and sit up on the kitchen table; a position that though failing to erase any of the awkwardness gave him back a little dignity.

"I am Terran. If you didn't want me to be you should have stayed on Orion." grumbled the girl. She looked to be in her late teens, maybe early twenties at the most. She looked a lot like her mother but that might just be that they had the same phenotype. Thick dark hair, full lips without the black lipstick her mother wore. Also they both had dark emerald green skin, as opposed to the lime or yellow green color that was more common. This was due to Illiyana's having come from a fairly rural sparsely populated continent on her home planet.

"I meant human sweetie"

"Says the woman who has a human spread-eagled on the table…hey Captain Christopher Pike right?" Pike couldn't tell if the girl's recognition made him feel kind of proud or more embarrassed.

"Where do think you got your taste for men in uniform from?"

"Its not a taste. Starfleet guys are used to aliens therefore less annoying questions." She looked at Pike a little nervously "I'm D'Nal by the way."

"D'Nal of course. I'm sorry I didn't recognize you it's been so long. Don't…don't…I made this situation awkward. Your mother and I are very old friends and I was…we, well we're going out to dinner…"

"Oh crap I forgot about our reservations. Let me get dressed, I'll just be a minute." Illiyana darted out of the room leaving her daughter and her sometimes lover together.

"Who was that?" Pike asked D'Nal gesturing towards the stairs to indicate the man who'd just left

"Oh just my ex's dad. Things did not end well between us and so he thought he could get his way if he came over and bullied my mom. Its…its just too stupid" Pike took that as a cue not to enquire further so he just nodded and changed the subject.

"You say you hang around with cadets…have you ever thought about it for yourself, as a career option?" He didn't know why he was saying this. He supposed part of him wanted to practice his recruiting pitch and figured that the girl would be a good test case. Maybe it was an instinct. Maybe it was just the fact that he'd given too much of his life to this to say what he sometimes thought, that joining the Fleet was just asking the universe to mess with you.

D'Nal averted his gaze again "I, um…I don't think they'd want me. I've kinda got a criminal record"

"So did I. Any felonies?"

"No, just a couple of shoplifting charges and…I seem to get in bar fights a lot."

"Then you're good." There was a brief silence, or near silence for it was punctuated by Illyiana swearing from the other room and throwing things around the room.

"What's your rap sheet look like if I may ask?"

"I've also been known to appreciate a good bar fight in my day. Now I mainly break them up what with being a responsible adult and all. Also if you want to know something I was too young and hadn't finished high school."

"How did you get in? Are they really not picky or did you hack into the system or something?" Pike was pretty sure he heard the shower on in the other room, and the kind with water too, not a sonic.

"Archer just looked the other way, thought I had potential apparently. I know why they make you finish your education before enlisting but I feel like I learned everything I need to know at the academy. Of course I went to school on one of those godforsaken terraformed colonies that they only check in on every thirty years, it was a mess." As soon as he finished this thought he realized that he had somehow said the wrong thing by the look on her face. All D'Nal said though was

"Yeah, I know those places."

They were interrupted by Illyiana's return in a very tight black and silver dress, with a plunging neckline and two long slits up the side.

"You look lovely, where are we going?" he asked

"That Vietnamese place in the New Ferry Building with the great view. What were you two talking about?"

"The Captain was asking me if I'd ever considered a career in Starfleet." Illiyana whipped around and glared at Pike

"No! Chris…no! I cannot believe…"

"I was just asking her if she'd thought about it!" Protested Pike

"You are not turning her into a redshirt! I will not have my only daughter work as a target practice for bored Klingons!"

"First thing, Security personnel…" Illyiana visibly rolled her eyes "Redshirts have very high survival ratings considering the duration of the kind of missions we work and the amount of unknown and hostile species we encounter. Redshirts do not always die. MACOS especially…"

"No!"

"Anyway I never said "redshirt" she could be science, command, communications…there are a lot of different specialties"

Illiyana snorted "Yeah this girl sure looks like command material to me"

"Hey!" said Pike and D'Nal in unison

"Honey take it from someone who knows you. Starfleet is not for you. You do realize that you have to take orders people for a start"

"Mom if you knew me you'd realize that that is the one thing you could say that would make me go over to a recruiting center right now."

"You know what, I am late for my dinner reservation but we are going to talk about this later." She grabbed Pike by the arm and proceeded to pull him out the door. "I'll be back sometime tomorrow morning."

"Honestly Chris, what were you thinking?"

"I thought the spring rolls were great. I don't know what your problem was." They were lying together in the bed of Pike's new apartment staring up at the ceiling.

"You know what I mean. I was talking about my daughter" Pike took this as his cue to get up and pull on his clothes, he'd never been good at arguing naked. Illyiana remained among the rumpled bed sheets glaring at him.

"What on earth possessed you to try and recruit her? I realize you have this thing for hopeless cases…"

"Is that how you'd characterize D'Nal? I suppose I just thought that she could use her proclivities for good rather than property destruction. Also did that guy at your place call me pinkskin? I thought only Andorians used that one."

"Fine, we don't have to have this conversation. Just add it to the list of stuff we don't talk about." Pike rolled his eyes so hard at this one it was almost audible

"I have no problem talking about any of this. Most of the conversations we consider off limits are designated that way by you, if I may point out. Anyway I'm sorry. I didn't mean to corrupt your daughter. I always thought you felt that I worked for a benign if naïve organization. Or was that just part of your act to get asylum…"

"I do. I just don't share your assumption that bar fights are a mark of character."

"For your information, I don't try and recruit every drunk I come across. I just think that D'Nal seems like a good kid but a fight magnet." In response to this she got up and walked over to the window, clearly caring nothing about whoever might be watching and stood by his side looking out over the Presidio. All she said was;

"I suppose that's a fair assessment." In a way that made it clear that the subject was closed for the night. Then after a long silence she asked;

"So is it good to be home?"

"This isn't home. My home is currently headed out on routine patrol of the Neutral Zone without me. I know that's kind of a clichéd thing for a captain to say…"

"Yeah, well… its also a little clichéd for a starship captain to be with a green girl but…" She made a gesture with both hands as if to say 'but here we are'

"You're right…here we are"


	2. Chapter 2

Starfleet Academy

Chapter 2

Old Friends

The sky had gone completely dark before Pike realized that if was probably time to leave. He checked the time on his computer and was relieved to find that it was only five o'clock, he didn't have to be at Archer's until eight. He wondered if it would be appropriate to ask his hosts for some advice on teaching. He may not like his new job but he sure as hell wasn't going to prove to anyone that he was incompetent in this as well. He felt that his current lesson plan was adequate but lacked a certain…honesty? Flair? Applicability?

His musings were interrupted by a knock on the door and looking up he saw someone he'd assumed to be light years away.

"One?"

"Hello Christopher" His surprise was met with her usual Mona Lisa smile. This was Number One, his former First Officer. She was attractive but there was something too cold and striking about her to call her pretty. Number One had very bright blue eyes, the kind that made you understand why people said "electric blue". She was practically as tall as he was with a thin willowy figure and a long boney sort of face.

"What brings you to this planet? I thought you were called back home to help deal with a territorial dispute." Asked Pike leaning back in his chair.

"Well its been settled. I don't believe the Gorn ever were going to invade, they may have exceedingly tiny brains but they aren't quite stupid enough to declare war on a member of the Federation…even if it is only little Illyria."

"Boy am I out of the loop. When I heard territorial dispute I just thought you were arguing with you neighbor about meters of empty space. No one tells me anything around here." Number One raised her eyebrow at him which could have meant anything but Pike took as a rebuke. So he changed the subject "Why just Illyria if I may ask?"

"A lot of planets in the Delphic Expanse used to be part of the Gorn Hegemony about a century ago…but of course you know that… every now and again they make noise about taking back what's rightfully there's. Also don't feel bad, the whole affair was highly confidential"

Pike nodded. Number One's home planet seemed to have this unfortunate predilection for getting invaded by every neighboring power who wanted to take a shot at empire building.

"If it's highly confidential, why are you telling me?" He asked her, teasing a bit

"Because you strike me as an fairly minor security risk"

"Wait, security risk?" Pike asked with only slightly fake indignation. He supposed he couldn't expect her to say something like 'I don't keep secrets from you', which is what he would say if the roles were reversed.

"Everyone is a security risk to one extent or another. Anyway enough of that, what about Phil?" Pike narrowed his eyes

"What about Phil?"

"Have you talked to him?" Said Number One in that tone of hers that stayed neutral but was creeping towards patronizing

"No, I haven't talked to him. Did he send you?"

"Of course not and I think you should" It was definitely patronizing now.

"I told him I wasn't speaking to him again."

Pike couldn't say he didn't regret that, in fact part of the reason he was so hesitant to make peace with his best friend was because he didn't know quiet how to go back after the particularly vicious argument they'd had at their last meeting.

"Which we all know was hyperbolic. It is my assessment that you will talk to him before the end of the month…and that is a generous estimate." Said Number One.

"Don't tell me what I'm going to do. While you were calculating the odds or whatever it is you do you must have remembered that I can stay mad for a hell of a long time."

Something about the smug tone with which she had said that, like he was so damn predictable. As soon as she said that Pike wanted to never speak to Phil again.

The reasonable part of his brain was telling the angry part that this reaction was incredibly immature and the angry part was just saying "go to hell" which sort of confirmed that assessment.

"You and Phillip have been friends for over thirty years. It seems rather senseless to throw that away over this. You are in the wrong Christopher, and what's more you know it."

"For one don't call him Phillip just to prove that you are an emotionless non-Terran who speaks like a computer… he prefers Phil and _you know it_…"

"See, you continue to worry about his feelings even though you are angry at him"

"Also I thought Illyrians didn't have friends, so why do you care about mine…heck why are you here?"

"We don't, but since your species considers friendship to be of great importance to your mental health and wellbeing…"

For all of One's analytical skills she really didn't have much in the way of social intelligence. When she'd been his XO they'd argued a lot, it was part of the reason he'd requested her; to balance his personality and command style. But when it came to any kind of interpersonal issue their discussions stopped being productive very quickly. Like right now, how she was making him even less willing to do what he knew he needed to do. But before anything else could happen he heard a commotion outside.

As the commotion drew nearer it became clear that it emanated from one extremely irate Orion woman.

"I don't care if someone else is in there I am going to give him a piece of my mind even if I have to stand here and yell it all night!" Number One, recognizing the voice, turned on Pike.

"Really Christopher?"

"Can you just give me five minutes here?" He asked instead of answering her directly. In response she turned on her heal and strode out of the room leaving him to face Illyiana alone. He sighed and walked out telling his beleaguered secretary that it was all right and he could go. Once he had gotten her into the room and closed the door they both started talking at the same time

"Do you realize…?"

"No, do _you_ realize…?"

"That could have been important!"

"This is important, and anyway it wasn't…" Illyiana had now returned to normal decibel levels

"Yes it was, not of intergalactic significance I'll grant you, but considering my line of work it could have been…"

"Oh please" She shot back pulling a mirror out of her purse to check her lipstick "Maybe at one point but now that you're on fuckup duty…"

"Get out!"

"I haven't told you why I was mad in the first place!"

"I don't care, get out!" Pike threw open the door to emphasize his point

"No! I came here to yell at you because my daughter D'Nal enlisted in your precious Starfleet this morning. Of course this is all your fault."

"Well…I'm sorry…actually scratch that I'm not sorry. It was her decision, she's legally and adult and I think part of the reason she did this was to piss you off. So part of that's on you." Illyiana made a hand gesture that was her culture's equivalent of the middle finger

"You know what, I have to go. I have a date but I just want to let you know if anything happens to her I am going to come and kill you." She begun walking out of the office when a question from Pike stopped her

"Have you ever told her that?"

"Told her what?"

"That you're worried about her, that you don't want anything to happen to her, that your maternal instincts drove you to come up here to threaten me. Last night I got the impression you didn't want her to join because you didn't think she was up to it. I'm pretty sure she felt that too."

"Of course she's up to it"

"Have you told her that?" She dropped her gaze to the floor

"I've got to go, I'll see you this weekend Chris" She turned and flounced out of his office leaving him feeling very alone. After a few minutes of this he sighed in resignation.

"Damn it, One" he said softly to the silence and the empty air where she used to be.

D'Nal had only been in Starfleet for about five hours and she was already regretting her decision. On the plus side her mother was furious also…wait that was about it. Well there was also the fact that Orion men tended to steer clear of Starfleet. She supposed there might be some nice ones out there but for now she was going to look at other species exclusively and hope that Haran and his dad felt uncomfortable enough to stay away form her here.

She'd signed a whole bunch of forms and after being measured for a uniform was given and orientation schedule and told to report at a time that she didn't even recognize as a time. She looked around at the barracks she was supposed to wait in and even though she knew they were just temporary until she got a permanent room assignment she could help but see the similarity to a prison. As much as she hated to admit it her mom was probably right about her unsuitability for an organization even as mildly military as this one.

But running away wasn't an option. Going back to her ex wasn't an option, if she went back to her mom she knew she'd never hear the end of it, but if she ran away where would she go? Besides the thought of what her mother would say when Pike told her that D'Nal had bailed was enough on its own to make her want to go sign up again.

Maybe this was actually really good, the opportunity she'd been looking for even though she didn't want to admit it, maybe this would be the thing that would help her get her life turned around. With this resolution she sat down to make herself comfortable only to have to get up again when a tall white Andorian came into the room and called her name.

"Cadet D'Nal"

"That's me." He curled his lip a little at this

"This is Starfleet, cadet; not a dentists waiting room. The correct form of address is 'yes sir' its not too soon to learn that"

"Sorry" she said then after a pause "Sir"

"That's somewhat better. Come with me to take your placement test." He turned to leave and D'Nal followed him.

"Can't you guys get my high school transcript?"

"This is for which track you wish to pursue"

"Oh I'll be security. You don't have to give me the…"

"You may end up in security if that is the proper place for you but first take the test. This is obligatory regardless of what track you wish to pursue. If you feel that the test has place you incorrectly you may appeal it." He said with a bored tone that suggested that this wasn't the first time he'd had to explain this.

"Ok, so if I flunk I wind up in security anyway, is that how it works?"

"No. You end up in security if you personality, preferences and abilities indicate that it is the best career for you. If you 'fail' the test you'll be asked to reconsider whether or not Starfleet is the right vocation for you." He responded with and exasperated glare

"Hey don't give me that look. If you explained all this at the beginning I wouldn't have to ask." He turned around so quickly that D'Nal almost ran into him.

"If you're given an order you are supposed to follow it without questioning."

"Oh like 'kill those civilians over there'?"

"Do you really think war crimes are funny?"

"Um…well…no…"

"Good. This way."

Phil Boyce got up and paced around his office. His eyes were straining and he'd been sitting for too long. Keeping up with recent medical developments was an important part of his job but one that made him feel like he was back in school. He was interrupted by a knock on the door and opening found his former commanding officer.

"Evening Chris, what happened to the whole not speaking to me thing?"

"I…well…am I interrupting anything?" Pike fidgeted a little clearly going to a great deal of effort not to make eye contact with Boyce

"Not really, I'm in the middle of this really groundbreaking paper on the Suarian virus by some doctor from bumfuck nowhere Georgia...brilliant, brilliant stuff…but nothing that I can't do later." There was a tense pause

"I'm not apologizing" Said Boyce looking Pike straight in the eye despite his best efforts.

"Of course you're not. That's my job. Just as long as you're still speaking to me that is."

"No I'm still speaking to you. _I_ wasn't the one to blow off my oldest dearest friend because I was pissed off about being reassigned."

"Phil…I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I know you were just trying to help me. I always knew that…its just…you've always been to one to convince me that I should keep going, that I wasn't crazy. So you telling me that I'd lost my mind…"

"Oh stop being such a drama queen. All I said was that you were running yourself ragged and were in need of some serious time off. For all your bitching about quitting the Fleet I knew that it was either this or I was going to have to drag you personally out of that captains chair kicking and screaming"

"Not if you tranquilized me first"

"That probably would be a good idea." They both smiled briefly and lapsed into an awkward if notably less tense silence.

"I'm just…I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being such an asshole to you Phil…"

"Forget it. Its your basic human right to be an asshole sometimes."

"I thought that was more of a basic Vulcan right"

"Oh no they have the right to be assholes twenty four seven, I'm pretty sure its in their constitution" Pike actually burst out laughing at this one

"I said some things I'm not proud of either. Like I'm sorry for calling you a sick son of a bitch in an official report."

"No I'm sick all right. Also if you knew my mother you'd know why I don't take offense at being called an SOB."

"You're not sick, not really" said Boyce softly

"I think my therapist would disagree with you"

"Oh god, they stuck you in counseling?" Groaned the doctor

"I'm afraid so…wait it wasn't your recommendation?"

"Fuck no. I can't stand therapy. That's what alcohol is for. Speaking of which its happy hour. Martini?"

"Thanks" Said Pike "I need one, I'm going over to Jonathan and T'Pol's for dinner."

Boyce looked at him with incredulity

"Why do you need booze to see them? I get that you and social situations have never really been close but this is Jon and Polly we're talking about."

"Does Admiral T'Pol know that you call her Polly behind her back?" Boyce just laughed at this in a way that said "Hell no" and decided to change the subject.

"Yeah I hear a certain pissed off ex girlfriend of ours paid you a visit earlier." Said Boyce with a rye smile.

"Wow, word gets around here pretty fast"

"Number One stopped by"

"Of course" Groaned Pike

"Did she put you up to coming around here?"

"She may have given me a lecture on the merits of friendship which she wouldn't know anything about of course."

"And yet you came"

"I'd been meaning to for a long time. When she came around I decided that I could either stay away because she'd annoyed me or take her advice. And that wasn't much of a choice."

"So how is Illyiana?"

"Her usual self, apparently her daughter's been having issues…one of the reasons she's angry at me. So I take it you haven't seen her recently?"

"We sort of broke up, not that we ever had much to begin with."

"Do you want me to stop seeing her?"

"No you do what you want. If she tries to veto you I'll be on your side." What Boyce was referring to was the system the three of them had devised to prevent the other two having to deal with annoying significant others any one of them might wish to collect. It was based on the mutual feeling that where boyfriends and girlfriends came and went, true companions where permanent and should not be alienated because of temporary infatuation. If the other two "vetoed" someone that one of them was seeing they had to dump the offending party. Since Pike and Boyce had both been with Illyiana at one point they stuck together whenever Number One raised any objections to her.

"Are you sure you don't still have…"

"Don't worry Chris. You have your fun, I'm too old for this shit."

"So am I Phil, so am I."


End file.
